4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat1/paste.1

PASTE(1)            UNIX Programmer's Manual             PASTE(1)



NAME
     paste - merge same lines of several files or subsequent
     lines of one file

SYNOPSIS
     paste file1 file2 ...
     paste -dlist file1 file2 ...
     paste -s [-dlist] file1 file2 ...

DESCRIPTION
     In the first two forms, _p_a_s_t_e concatenates corresponding
     lines of the given input files _f_i_l_e_1, _f_i_l_e_2, etc.  It treats
     each file as a column or columns of a table and pastes them
     together horizontally (parallel merging).  If you will, it
     is the counterpart of _c_a_t(1) which concatenates vertically,
     i.e., one file after the other.  In the last form above,
     _p_a_s_t_e subsumes the function of an older command with the
     same name by combining subsequent lines of the input file
     (serial merging).  In all cases, lines are glued together
     with the _t_a_b character, or with characters from an option-
     ally specified _l_i_s_t.  Output is to the standard output, so
     it can be used as the start of a pipe, or as a filter, if -
     is used in place of a file name.

     The meanings of the options are:

     -d   Without this option, the new-line characters of each
          but the last file (or last line in case of the -s
          option) are replaced by a _t_a_b character.  This option
          allows replacing the _t_a_b character by one or more
          alternate characters (see below).

     _l_i_s_t One or more characters immediately following -d replace
          the default _t_a_b as the line concatenation character.
          The list is used circularly, i. e. when exhausted, it
          is reused.  In parallel merging (i. e. no -s option),
          the lines from the last file are always terminated with
          a new-line character, not from the _l_i_s_t.  The list may
          contain the special escape sequences: \n (new-line), \t
          (tab), \\ (backslash), and \0 (empty string, not a null
          character).  Quoting may be necessary, if characters
          have special meaning to the shell (e.g. to get one
          backslash, use "" -_d"_\_\_\_\" ).

     -s   Merge subsequent lines rather than one from each input
          file.  Use _t_a_b for concatenation, unless a _l_i_s_t is
          specified with -d option.  Regardless of the _l_i_s_t, the
          very last character of the file is forced to be a new-
          line.

     -    May be used in place of any file name, to read a line
          from the standard input.  (There is no prompting).



Printed 12/27/86                                                1






PASTE(1)            UNIX Programmer's Manual             PASTE(1)



EXAMPLES
     ls | paste -d" " -
                    list directory in one column

     ls | paste - - - -
                    list directory in four columns

     paste -s -d"\t\n" file
                    combine pairs of lines into lines

SEE ALSO
     grep(1), cut(1),
     pr(1): pr -t -m...  works similarly, but creates extra
     blanks, tabs and new-lines for a nice page layout.

DIAGNOSTICS
     _l_i_n_e _t_o_o _l_o_n_g
               Output lines are restricted to 511 characters.

     _t_o_o _m_a_n_y _f_i_l_e_s
               Except for -s option, no more than 12 input files
               may be specified.

































Printed 12/27/86                                                2